Seven Adversaries
by Orangey10
Summary: L sees in Light Yagami all of the most worthy adversaries in his life, past and present. Not strictly a side-story to L: Past Times. Please R R!
1. Prologue

"L…"

A voice, somewhat concerned, and a bit sharp, indicating the close proximity of it, floated towards L's ears.

"L. Are you okay?"

L finally woke up, blinking. Light would have probably guessed what he was thinking about, as he pulled up more data on the Yotsuba corporation. "You were staring at me, L. Are you unwell?"

L's eyes subconsciously narrowed. _No, I am not letting you take complete charge of the Kira case, Kira. _"I'm perfectly alright. Though I was deep in thought just now, so if I was staring at you, I apologise,"

"How poetic," Matsuda snidely remarked. Yagami clipped him on the head. L ignored him.

Light made what he thought was a reassuring smile, while L's face remained unblinking. Although he hadn't said anything about stopping to stare at him, Light was still alarmed to find that if anything, his stare had intensified.

"Why are you staring at me?" Light's now irritated voice demanded, turning to face him, arms folded. L cocked his head.

"You…" he began.

"I am _not_ Kira," Light snapped.

"You remind me of several people," he finished, unfazed by the previous comment. He wasn't lying when he said it, and he really owed the student an explanation for his behaviour (every day, really, but he couldn't be bothered).

Light's eyes became alarmed. Matsuda audibly gasped. L remained there, unblinking, until he himself broke the silence by twirling the chair back to his laptop.

"They're not really people, though," L didn't miss Light's flinch. "They're not friends of mine,"

Light rolled his eyes angrily. "So you're now saying that I'm your enemy? I'm working with you!"

"So?" L childishly said, idly scratching his face.

"You said I was your first friend," he protested. Yagami by this time looked extremely uncomfortable.

"Of course, I did say that, didn't I, how stupid of me," L's poignant use of the word 'stupid' rather than 'forgetful' implied that he didn't mean it – that was not lost on Light, who with an aggravated face, continued working.

L continued to silently watch.


	2. A

"Now, if all of you would look at this data I compiled from various news organisations and of course, the main Yotsuba website,"

Light began to inform the rest of the police officers about their findings earlier that day. They were all concentrating very hard, except for L, spinning on his chair, and occasionally inputting side-notes into the lecture.

Light was very cold, sometimes. It was hard to tell, but they were even colder, and more focussed before – at the prison as well as when they had first met.

Just like A's.

Their eyes were a different shade – hers icy blue and his golden brown – but they both had the desired effect.

L never really liked her, but he respected that they were both on the same plane, both fighting for the same position (although she seemed to care for it more than he did), but he definitely did not respect the way she chose to end her life – it made more complications than it ended them.

And effectively, Light Yagami and L are fighting – Kira and L – are fighting for the same thing. Each of them would only stop at victory; and although Light might think that his name would be cleared, Kira certainly would not, and would stamp and spit on his name for evermore, a sacrilegious figure that dared to defy a god.

At least A probably had no feelings of resentment such as this.


	3. B

B

L had often wondered if (no, _when_) he captured Kira, how the situation would play out. When he had captured killers before (although he had been behind the safety net of the computer screen) they had tried to last out at the computer screen, and one had even succeeded in ripping the monitor of the laptop out, chucking it out of the window.

Fortunately, L didn't die.

But Light's definite integrity of such matters led L to believe sometimes that he wasn't Kira, he was just an abnormally intelligent young man, at the wrong places at the wrong times. But L's intuition was mostly correct.

Ever since he had found out about the 'eyes' that a Kira could possess, he never spent a day without thinking about his former colleague, B. He had red eyes, and when Eve told him the truth behind those, he just refused to believe her.

He of course, knew better now, and wondered maybe if B knew how destructive his eyes could be, rather than just being a source for psychics to conduct their tarot card readings.

B wasn't very destructive in the short run, but he was the one who had the most mental 'damage' done by his colleague's death, and he had run away only 15 minutes after seeing the corpse. Nonetheless, he was a determined individual, so much so that he thought he could even beat L at a game of straw dolls.

B hasn't survived to rub it into his face that he did need help from a CIA agent, and L still thinks that the possessor of the red eyes is definitely evil. Somehow, deep down.

After all, he shares traits with Kira.


	4. Eraldo Coil

Eraldo Coil

L had never seen Coil in the face, and he was somewhat glad by this fact. He had shared a telephone call, and many coded messages, which gave him an accurate representation of his character.

He had received word from Watari that before Coil was shoved away from easy contact, he had heard (or figured out, L still didn't know) that L had usurped his position, but had not made it clear that Eraldo Coil was out of action.

"As expected of my successor," he had said bitterly, being dragged down the murky corridor to his damp cell.

L respected him for the many good and cunning things he had done (although he had been the core factor of Eve's desertion), but he had also known (through B this time) that he was a devout Catholic, and if he had the chance, he would've converted the world to his opinion.

Mysteriously select groups of people had died possibly under his influence, and L wondered, and thought, and suspected, and doubted, and concluded to the dismay of himself that he was just another religious extremist. In a sense.

But Kira was very, very intelligent – and he didn't let out his secrets, or his ideals (or, all of them, anyway), and that made him much harder to pinpoint.

L sighed irritably, and Light Yagami, in the middle of the presentation looked over more irritably.


	5. Watari

Watari

L had first met Quilish Wammy at his orphanage, his home at the age of 11. He had hesitantly and unknowingly passed the initiation process, and had found himself a member of a top-class education facility – much more than just a school. Because of his acquaintance, he had met many contacts who had proved to be more than useful (a mechanic, a linguist, a thief… the list went on) including Eve.

But he was much more than a father figure (though L loathed it when certain police offers alluded to this fact). He was an old enemy, and rarely a day passed by when they would lock eyes – Wammy's narrowing, and L's glaring. No one ever noticed, of course, but that was just beneficial for the both of them.

Wammy represented the lawful side to what L did – he pushed him (almost to the brink) to become a 'private investigator', usurping another drop-out's position. To be fair to Watari, L had no idea how hard this was meant to be until A went. Followed by B, and lastly by Eve.

L respects him, but thinks of him as an irritation, a fly that could be swatted away – he was the ever-present reminder that close to none of L's deeds were lawful, although the law and justice overall was what he represented. Watari's presence was just another indication of L being a hypocrite.

Light, however, verbally reminds him day after day, and after a while, his youthful, naïve shouts of 'You can't do that!' and 'That's unfair!' do get on his nerves after a while. At least Watari remains silent.

And as much as Watari owed him so much for the deaths and desertions of his colleagues, L in turn owes him so much for pushing him to be what he could have been.


	6. Lawrence Lawliet

"You're so clever, Light," Matsuda gawped. "How on earth did you manage to work out _all that_?"

Light laughed uncomfortably. "Well, I did get a lot of help from L over there," The snide look and sarcastic tone wasn't missed, but L does choose to reply.

"Light is a very capable young man, unlike most of his age group. He did do most of that himself, while I was deep in thought,"

Light rolled his eyes while Matsuda openly sneered at him. L calmly chewed his thumb.

Strong, but weak.

If Light Yagami was Kira, no he definitely _was_ Kira, then the side that killed 50 criminals a day was undoubtedly the weaker side. This would be because every human's true, primitive self is their weaker self. Sometimes physically, sometimes mentally.

When L is in a bad mood, all he would want to do is take that infuriatingly innocent man and strap him in a chair, deprive him of all necessary things to survive, and watch him sing all the truths that he would have never said otherwise.

But he wouldn't have forgiven himself, because he would be reminded of his father again.

When he visited him a couple of years ago, he had experienced an overpowering sense of loss, even though he was staring at him in the face. And although from what he had researched and found out about him he would be a strong man, all-knowing and capable of many other things too, he would be of weak consistency – apparently, he only survived a day and a half before begging for mercy.

L found that the only person he was willing to make amends for for being so pathetically weak would be his father, just because he was blood related.

He would make no amends for Light Yagami, if the damn man ever managed to get evidence against him. But he annoys L in the same way as Lawrence Lawliet did, in the gnawing sense of doubt, the sense that he was doing something terribly wrong, that he should be making amends, or making up in some other sense.

Because he never really got to know his father very well (he can't even imagine calling him 'Father', let alone other things like 'Dad'), and he had made it a personal moral never to get Light too close to him.


	7. Eve

To a normal being, Yvetta Yules would be a slightly flippant, smart, confident but definitely a calm person, who was wary of doing anything too significant before either getting a second opinion or waiting for extensive periods of time.

Unfortunately, it was the last trait that predominated in L's mind, and although the other traits were endearing enough that he had let her get slightly closer for comfort (and sometimes _too_ close for comfort), she acted her age (of 15 or was it 16 when she left?) sometimes, and she did so in the worst times.

L admired her, that much was certain, and regrettably (to him) he admires Light as well. Thankfully not quite in the same way, but they were both accepted by common society well enough, and both were intelligent (one a touch more than the other, though) and heck, they even looked similar to each other. They both held people they liked in a high regard (unlike L) and although Eve abruptly steered off the road to lead a normal life, Light wanted to 'abruptly' steer into L's road. He didn't really want to let him do that.

But however much he admired Eve, Eve was still a very significant obstacle to his goal of most renowned private investigator, and it took a lot of effort for him to calmly walk past it.

And however much he admired Light Yagami, he was a very significant obstacle to the ultimate conclusion of the Kira Case, and he's still trying to figure out how to bypass it.

And however similar Eve was to Light, if their names were anything to go by, they were opposites, and it comforted L much more to think of them this way.


	8. L

L

Light Yagami was finally talking to Misa, outside the headquarters. Misa was undeniably very happy, and Light was his usual perhaps tender, but definitely detached self.

L resolutely kept his eyes glued on the monitor screen. He had been in an uncharacteristically foul mood all morning, and although he knew what had caused it, it wasn't as easy to admit.

Part of the reason was that he just wasn't fond of Misa, and her girlish shrieks of delight whenever she saw Light's shadow was enough to make him retch (although all he did was twitch his mouth a little).

But he was definitely jealous. Not quite green with envy (who would want to be with Misa Amane?)

Here was a young man, a few years younger, tenderly holding his devoted girlfriend, relishing the respect and friendship of his peers. He was highly intelligent, if not more so than L himself. He had both parents. Chief Yagami as his father. A sister.

The only real disadvantage was that he was a crazy mass murderer.

L casually looked over to see Watari calmly looking over the police officer's expressions, trying to deduce whether any of them wanted tea. His mouth twitched downward (his version of a scowl) and his eyes returned to the screen.

God knows he had the opportunities to have the same privileges, but through a combination of extremely bad luck and extremely bad choices, he had ended up like this. He was decidedly managing a case which had fooled the world (he wouldn't let it fool _him_).

But those things – a family, friends, a lover (or two or three) … they weren't even meant to be privileges. You were meant to have them. Or you were … out of the ordinary.

Out of the ordinary. He smirked, this time. Aizawa fumed slightly, as L had the perfect timing to start smirking when Misa fiercely kissed Light.

He tried to think of a life with those 'privileges', and found himself worriedly overwhelmed with imaginative situations – he couldn't have this. He needed to meditate.

"Come on, L," he flinched as Aizawa leaned over to turn the surveillance cameras off. "Leave them be. They haven't seen each other for ages. They must have a lot to say to each other,"

Aizawa had seen nothing more painful than the bitter smile and the sad eyes which L maintained for 3 consecutive seconds before he curled up again, decidedly bit his thumb and looked up at him curiously.

"Of course, Aizawa-san," he chirped in a monotone voice.


End file.
